18 June 2072, 0420 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

No magic support, cameras and door locks that the girl whiz can hack from aboard our own vessel, this all too easy. WAY too easy. Chin up, Bobs, maybe you'll have a chance to get shot in the face once you go below decks. Zalermo grimaced. When things seemed to be going your way was when everything was about to his the fan. At least the kids behind him were following orders...they were even moving quietly, shockingly enough. Maybe their plan really was this perfect.

Zalermo couldn't let Rusty win the exchange, so after passing out of view he added, <What kind of perv do you take me for? Wiping definitely isn't my style. And don't be jealous, Jane's just eye-candy, there's nothing there, I swear.> With a sub-vocal chuckle going out over the comms, Zalermo didn't even look back to see how Jane had taken the lewd comment. Instead, he picked his way to the door and crouched down next to it, gun at the ready.

<Anytime with those doors, Lady Ahab.>

<You got it.> Melisandre replied, grinning at the nickname. Taking the keys from the drunken sailor, she set about unlocking the doors for her party, looking around for any security that might be a problem. And then there was always the potential distraction of treasure.....

Sadly for Melisandre, there is indeed security, of a sort. A guy in red, with a tricorn hat and wheellock pistol and cutlass, who spots her just as she unlocks the door Zalermo and company are in front of.

"Halt!" he shouts into the virtual ether. "In the name of the President of Aztlan, I command you to halt!"

Then, of course, he draws his pistol and aims at Melisandre.

"Of course." Melisandre replied, hoping her attempt to blend in with the 'crew' would be successful. She had already seen the rigger though, and it was a matter of sousing out if this was him, another hacker, or just another security protocol.

Abruptly, the conversation switches to Spanish. "Repeat the Grito de Dolores!" shouts the figure, keeping his pistol trained on Melisandre's icon.

Then, somehow, Melisandre's Analyze program is detected, and the figure (identified as IC) shouts "Intruder! Intruder!".

18 June 2072, 0420 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

The door 'clicked' audibly as a release somewhere switched. <Good job, Ahab, you can call me Ishmael...>

Unaware of the trouble beginning to explode in the nodes around him, Zalermo opened the door as quietly as possible, peering below decks before giving a wave to his team to follow.

<OOC: What is it like below decks? Does it seem to match schematics? What it the lighting?>

"My children: a new dispensation comes to us today. Will you receive it? Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen three hundred years ago from your forefathers by the hated Spaniards? We must act at once… Will not you defend your religion and your rights as true patriots? Long live our Lady of Guadalupe! Death to bad government! Death to the gachupines! " Melisandre recited, managing to put some spirit into it. She was glad she had taken the time to memorize that as a potential passphrase.

Unfortunatly it seemed her performance wasn't enough as the IC started hollering. She decided to take the initative while it was calling for it's fellows, to cut it down with her cutlass. She might be incompetent with the weapon in the real world, but in her own, she was a master swordswoman.

<OOC: Whoo! Just when I can't find deck plans for a container ship anywhere, CD.>

First, for Zalermo and crew:

Before you is a well-lit corridor, painted a sort of off-white. Foul-weather and survival gear is hung along the corridor, heading to a ladderwell heading up and down. Thusfar it matches the schematics.

Next, for Melisandre:

You're good. But unfortunately, the IC gives as good as it gets, drawing its' cutlass and scoring several hits before finally dying gruesomely - you take off its head.

Melisandre heaved a sigh of relief as the IC finally went down. She took a moment to put some salve on her wounds and assess if others were reacting to the IC's cries.

18 June 2072, 0422 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

Zalermo gestures for his team to take a wider 5m spread, before he heads in cautiously. <Last one in, close the door...everything seems ok on this end.> Shocked that communications have yet to be jammed, Zalermo moves slowly for the ladder.

Once there he gives a glance up and down and listens intently. If no hostiles were present, he slides his gun gently back into its concealed holster, then draws his knife. He places the blade in between his teeth before taking the ladder down to the appropriate deck.

I think you might be taking this 'pirate' business a little too seriously, omae.

Melisandre:

For a moment or two, it seems like there's no reaction...Then all hell breaks loose. An Aztec warrior appears before you and charges you with an obsidian sword, as four jaguars also appear, charging towards you.

Zalermo:

As you mount the ladder, it's still quiet. Too quiet, maybe. But still, slowly your trio moves...Down past the quarters, down past the holds, down to the reinforced door that schematics indicate leads to engineering.

8 June 2072, 0422 EDT
[Simon as "Steve Townsend" deckhand - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

First door's open, nothing exploded, nobody got shot, no alarms sounded. Seems our guiding spirit isn't the Rhino, after all.

Stepping through the opening after Jane, Simon turns around and shuts the hatch after him as silently as possible and turns around just in time to see Zalermo exchange his gun for a knife.

If some dreckhead accidentally ends up with a slit throat, is he going to give himself a stern dressing down?

Simon, sporting a mischievous grin, follows Jane deeper into the belly of the beast, taking care to maintain distance.

OOC: Break down of Magical Detection:


IC: <Affirmative Melisandre, info acknowledged. Moving to bridge strike position.> John velcros his Praetor to his back and stealthy makes his way to the bridge tower. With his Geckoed hands, he reaches a position close to the door of the bridge leading to the outside observation balcony and out of sight. <Positioned next to the bridge, waiting to engage> Electrified with curls of silent lighting wrapping his hands, John poses to strike.

18 June 2072, 0420 EDT
[Dana "Rusty" O'Roarke as - Shioban Jones, charter boat operator - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty




<"The typical kind of perv by the sound of it. Remember, the penalty for sexual harassment is 40 lashes by the victim or the captain, and either of us might enjoy it too much!"> Rusty sends back as she made her approach. The other team needed more time to get into position, but it wasn't much longer...




Rusty moved to cover the door itself efficiently, giving John a nod as he takes up his position. <Mel, bridge door check... is it secured?> she asks, left hand just above the handle...

OOC Steath and Perception.

Jane vaguely considered having her drone 'accidentally' pop Zalermo with a capsule round, but part of her figures she should be flattered, and most of her is still exceedingly nervous, her knuckles whitening a bit as she continues to grip her gun as though letting go would cause her instant death.

Despite her nerves she lets out a subvocal groan at Zalermo's pirate-like decent "Like he's really going to do anything with a knife." she thinks to herself. It only increases her nerves to be being led by someone who seemed likely to get shot by her own drones for moving in their line of fire. For her own part her continues to hold her gun when she descends, using her wrist to keep herself balanced on the ladder with her full hand ((I swear this is alot easier than it sounds)).

<A bit busy right now. Anyone feels like lending a hand.> Melisandre replied drawing her pistol to try to take down some of the jaguars before she engaged the warrior in swordsplay.

<Don't know a thing about hacking a system, best I could do is throw you a copy of my IC if you want it, could help even the odds> Jane responds back, loading up a full copy of her IC and sending it along to her. It may be of limited help, but it might be worth having around as a distraction if nothing else.

<Another blade will be a help.> Melisandre said, tossing the key code to her as she and her new partner focused on combat on the digital plane.

Realizing the trouble on Cyberspace, John offered <Melisandre, slave my commlink. It'll give you an extra device to run the IC>

In the meantime, John realized the only gear he didn't bring was a flash bang. He signaled Rusty and George about one. They might need to hit the bridge soon to control the Cyber nodes on the ship.

Rusty let a vaguely amused smile show she plucked a flashbang grenade off her tactical harness and passed it over to John, offering another one to George. She held up an open hand in the "Wait" position, ready to open and toss... once they confirm the door isn't alarmed...

Alexander exchanged his carbine for his shotgun, and then took the flashbang from the captain. With a smooth and practiced motion, and removed the thumb safety and put his middle finger through the ring on the pin and waited for the captain's signal.

18 June 2072, 0423 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty, Below Decks

Zalermo crouched in front of the reinforced door. On the other side should be a large engineering chamber. Due to the lack of cameras and sensors in this region just about anything could be on the other side of this door. He paused for a moment to steady himself, switching back to his gun and hoping like hell that Iago's spirit would provide sufficient concealment. As he braced himself to go through the door he heard Melisandre's responses and the chatter that followed.

<About to breach target, if the 'trix is getting too dicey, bail Mel. If the alarm is going out we need to send out that jamming signal ASAP!> With that Zalermo opened the door as quietly as possible. Under ordinary circumstances, he was sure he would have been spotted, but the spirit must have been doing its work. He poked his head through and saw a surprisingly well lit and relatively clean chamber. One could hardly tell from this room that they were dealing with slavers.

Zalermo crept into the room and counted potential hostiles. Only one meta seemed to be present. An engineer by the cut of his jib...and he seemed to be entirely occupied in his work. Well, Bobs, guess the alarm hasn't been activated yet. Other then the unsuspecting engy there were about a half a dozen drones flitting about, all seemed to be there for the purpose of automated repairs and routine maintenance, they didn't seem to be a threat. Zalermo picked his way through the room, getting as far from the door as possible before taking aim, and squeezing off a shot on his target.

Say Goodnight, Gracie. A quiet "zip" and a faint smell of ozone was all that even the most astute observer would have noticed. The Stick-n-Shock rounds launching through the air, nailing the engineer square in the back. The target collapsed in a twitching heap, but didn't even have a chance to make a sound. Zalermo covered the distance to his target rapidly, still aiming the gun at the prone figure. He brought out a zip tie and bound the targets hands.

<Targets neutralized, securing location. Mel, sit rep! Jane, take over and tell me everything you can about what kind of personnel we are dealing with. Simon, defensive positions. This all far too easy.>

18 June 2072, 0423 EDT
[Simon as "Steve Townsend" deckhand - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty, Below Decks

And down he goes. So good so quiet.

Simon waits until Jane has entered the Engine room then follows and - after a short hesitation - closes the door behind him..
After giving Zalermo a nod, Simon walks over to the downed slaver.

Let's see what these dudes pack.

Simon pats the unconscious man down, takes his commlink, gives Zalermo the all clear and proceeds to carry the downed sailor to over to a workbench, putting him down so that he cannot be seen from the entrance and then drops a piece of cloth over his form for good measure.

After taking a look around Simon decides to cross the room again and kneel behind a sturdy looking compressor.

As Zalermo's team takes down the engineer, all is quiet for a moment. Then, klaxons sound throughout the ship - as does an automated voice, in Spanish. "Crewmember Ortega, J. has exited specified biological parameters. Alert, alert. Crewmember Ortega, J. has exited specified biological parameters."

That appears to rouse the crew to action, as doors can be detected by Melisandre opening from the quarters level and on the same level as the hold - at the compartment indicated as the guard room.

Figures can then be seen streaming towards the armory.

<Simon, toss me that commlink> Jane orders. It will be much easier to get into the system with an official commlink instead of trying to use her own. Best of all it should have been on when the guy was taken out, so she shouldn't even need to worry about a password, should be nice and connected already.

Once she is passed the commlink she starts bringing up everything she can, streaming any cameras that Melisandre had missed to the rest of the group. May as well take advantage of it as long as possible <Hey, Mel, come in through this commlink, the guard's shouldn't bother you if you come in through an official connection. See if you can shut down the alarms so we don't have to Jam the ship, leave the IC to make it look like you're just full running and having the IC cover your escape.>

That said, she focuses on figuring out what direct control of the ship she can manage from here. At the very least she should be able to shut down the engines, or speed them up, but rudder control might not be an option. She also does a quick scan of what drones are on the ship, she might be able to make a distraction if any are in good positions.

After giving Jane the man's commlink, Simon returns to "his" compressor, only to be suprised by the announcement.

"Didn't need no Spanish class to get the meaning of that."

"So much for nice and quiet"

Simon holsters his Smartgun, draws his White Knight from his back, extends its folding stock and aims the LMG at the closed door.

"Don't be such spoilsports, you know somebody is throwing a party in here and guess what? You're all invited.""

"Time for rock 'n' roll, n'est-ce pas?"

Simon cycles through firing options for a while before making his choice.

"First sucker through that door will wish he hadn't drawn the short straw."

Moments later the jammer goes up, blocking all wireless communication for the crew, though leaving Jane's commlink still up. She sets it up to route Mel's signal if it can still connect so that the hacker can still do her thing <Mel, if you can still get in, que up an explosion sound followed by an announcement about the ship sinking and telling all hands to abandon ship. We can time it with me messing with the engines, might be enough to make at least a few of them jump>

Her drones meanwhile focus their full attention on the only door into the room, ready to fire on anyone stupid enough to try entering the door. Jane's biggest concern now is for a grenade being thrown in, and makes sure to position herself as far from the door as possible.

18 June 2072, 0423 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

"Who puts a bio-monitor on their engineers!? Jane, make sure that jammer stays on, can you get me anything on the number of people who made it out of their rooms and to the armory? How many hostiles have made it the halls, worse yet the armory? Any intel you can give me, the better off we are."

Zalermo moved rapidly, scanning the room for any useful tools or instruments that might be lying around. Perhaps a ship schematic or some internal security consoles were set up down here, anything to give a view of the ship.

"For now, we're stuck defending that choke point, but for all we know our other team is still out there and those hostages are still in trouble. Simon, be careful with the full auto on that thing, we DO NOT want any incidental deaths from too many gel rounds. We need to get to the prisoners and make sure these scum don't start offing them. Any intel? Anything at all? You have two minutes MAX to get me all the information we can. We move out at 0425 if they haven't come to us."

Zalermo checked the clock display over-layed on his standard vision, two minutes to get news, that should be more then enough time for Jane to get what was needed. Hopefully she'd be substantially faster. Zalermo flipped a work bench and took some cover behind it, reloading his snub-nose, just in case.

18 June 2072, 0423 EDT
John, Hidden

Two bursts of shock and awe blasted the bridge. With Rusty's go ahead, George and John had chucked their payload through the open door. Storming the room, John grappled and tripped the closer person while shots zinged past him. While John's target twitched on the floor from electricity, George did his thing on the other. John zip tied his target's hands and feet and did a situation check.

18 June 2072, 0423 EDT
[Simon as "Steve Townsend" deckhand - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty, Below Decks

Simon snorts audibly and says "Don't worry, I'll keep our precious friends alive."

Heh and the jamming goes according to plan. Just when we might benifit from coordinating with the other group. Busniess as usual.

While everyone else on the ship may not be able to get out a signal, Jane's commlink can, and she can send one way, and so continues to feed whatever video she can get access to to the rest of her team. She won't be able to keep up the feed with the jammer up from anywhere else in the ship though, as only the fiberoptic cable keeps the stolen commlink in communication with the ship and with her own commlink.

Stormcloud should keep them off the main deck, and my two here should keep them out of this room, but we can't just sit here forever.

Jane moves into a sitting position to stop herself falling as she enters into VR, wanting the extra speed to handle everything properly. She watches a quick loop of the few seconds since the alarm went off, easily counting and keeping track of all the people leaving their cabins, those entering the armory, and those doing other things of note, like closing in on either group. She sends constant updates of these numbers to her team. She can't really know if they are getting through or not, but for now she trusts that they are, and if not... well, there is only so much she can do from here.

18 June 2072, 0424 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

One minute left, the girl is giving us some good data, lets see if she can get anything else. Zalermo didn't like the idea of just leaving her behind, but honestly, being holed up in this bay would likely be a much safer road then he and Simon would be taking.

"Alright, at 0425, we head out, I'll handle the doors, you handle the halls Simon. We're looking at SWAT team tactics here, we breach, we clear, we move on. We don't get bogged down, we don't get surrounded. We make it to a hold and we secure it. Jane, if you run into trouble, send us a signal. If anything changes...do the same. The hostages are important, but your safety comes first, if things are going belly-up, get out of here, you all know the rendezvous."

Realizing he was up shits creek trying to make sense of the controls, John spoke, "Jane, Mel, this is John, we've secured the bridge. Tell me how to patch through bridge controls to you. I'm sending my visual feed."

John worked fast to transfer the controls. Controls were in Spanish, so he was able to read aloud the computer controls over the mic. Once he had routed commands to Mel and Jane, he turned his attention to the door controls.

"I'm attempting to lock the armory doors." With that, John made his best guess what the control was.

18 June 2072, 0425 EDT
Rusty, Hidden

Rusty took the bridge last, the flash-bangs and quick close-in work of her team putting down the crew. "Good work" she says tersely, moving to cover the door in a crouch, holstering her pistol and bringing out her assault rifle. "No one wants be first up a corridor when a few bursts go overhead..." she explains. Everyone's doing a solid job, she sees from her commlink feeds. The situation has gone south, but that happens every time.



"The crew's wired with biomonitors, see if there are controls for anything else, autoinjectors, cortex bombs, BTLs..." Rusty suggests. If they're THAT paranoid, maybe her team will get lucky before anyone catches a bullet.

18 June 2072, 0425 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

"3...2...", Zalermo gestured as he slowly approached the door. As he hand closed into a fist he opened the hatch and stood well to the side. After a few seconds of quiet, he deemed the hallway to be clear. Peering out, he glanced back up the ladder and listened. With the alarms shut down again and the lack of radio chatter everything was eerily quiet. Zalermo looked to the spirit, <Yo, magic...guy...drop Jane from the spell, you're comin' with us.> Not the most elegant order he had ever given, he was glad his mics were jammed and only the spirit was clever enough to notice him.

Zalermo started up the ladder, Two decks, then over a bit of a ways...the armory is up another three, should be smooth sailing, Bobs.Zalermo went up the ladder with an amazing stealth, that spirit was really working wonders, he'd have to thank Iago when the two of them got through this.

Zalermo peeked around deck 9, nothing to be seen. He continued upwards. Just before he peered out at deck 8 his ears perked up. A door had creaked open, the sound of footsteps drawing nearer. Ever so cautiously Zalermo raised his head above the lift, they couldn't be seen yet, and the echoing made it sound like it could be two men, or it could be twenty. They were in between Zalermo's team and the target...there was nothing for it. The ladder let out in only one direction on this floor. The men must be moving to it, that gave him the chokepoint.

Zalermo slipped up the ladder beyond deck 8, hooking onto it with his legs and using both hands to signal to Simon. As Zalermo inverted his position so he could peek down from above, the first figure rounded the corner, then a second, and a third. There was five of them all told. A fully decked out security detail looking for trouble. They must have been the guys on shift, and they were headed somewhere in a hurry. Zalermo waved Simon up frantically, if ever there was a need for a gun as stupidly large as that troll had it was now, when five enemies were running down a narrow hallway to their position.

<Aww....I was winning too.> Melisandre complained when she was told it was time to bail. She planted a boot in her opponent's chest, knocking him back into the remaining jaguars. She wasn't going to argue though. If the jammer was going up, she didn't want the headache that came with getting dumped from it. "Maybe next time." she taunted, before running off.

She frowned as she found herself back in her seat on the Fedallah. All the action was going on over there, and here she was babysitting the ship. Before she had time to pout for long, Jane offered her a line back in. Of course she was going to take it, even if it was rocky slipping back in. <Alright....back in business.>

It seemed she had a whole laundry list to go through. <"Be with you in a second, John."
she said, setting up Jane's request first. Unfortunatly her favored Age of Sail filter wasn't going to cut it for what she was trying to do. So she switched over to a filter closer to the raw data of the matrix, a cyberpirate slipping through the system, finding the node she needed to send those corp minions panicing.

John's Spanish was barely cutting it.

"Cap, request assistance. Need help finding the door controls"

"Satori!" John exclaimed. "This is John. All doors and hatches are locked and secure!"

18 June 2072, 0425 EDT
[Simon as "Steve Townsend" deckhand - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty, Below Decks

Simon gives Jane the thumbs up as he follows Zalermo out into the corridor. Prolly can't even see that, fighting her own fight in the virtual.

Simon quickly follows Zalermo, trying to maintain a clear field of fire over his shoulder as much as possible. At the first ladder Simon secures the ground while Zalermo climbs up and then follows.

Prepared to do the same the second time round, Simon finds that his leader suddenly climbs up another flight and frantically signals him to follow.

Ah, trouble. Finally. And I was starting to worry this run might turn out to be an exception to the rule 'bring bigger guns'

Climbing up, Simon finds himself confronted with an upside-down Zalermo and five hostiles closing in on their position.

Five to two, is that what your mommas would call fair?

Seemingly picking targets at random, Simon brings his machine-gun to bear first on one - damn that beast is loud when firing bursts - then on another enemy.

Non-lethal doesn't mean you have to like it one bit.

Salut, mes amis!

I really need to learn how to annoy people in Spanish and Portugese.


Watching his first target get literally thrown back into the corridor wall, Simon flinches a little bit with what might be sympathy.

Sucks to be you, buddy. Just stay barely alive, will ya?

Looking at his second victim, Simon notices that person down on the floor as well.

Felt like catching a bullet, too? Good boy, play dead. If our exalted leader feels like joining in, we're almost good to walk away.

Simon looks up and gives Zalermo a challenging look.

18 June 2072, 0425 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

Zalermo felt like a fool, hanging upside down like he was, but once Simon opened up with that machine gun he knew he had made the right decision. Damn, accidentally walk in front of that ground pounder and you will become a sticky mess...and not a fun one. Simon fired round after round down the tunnel, but Zalermo simply lined up his shot, and squeezed the trigger once, then twice.

The smile spreading across Zalermo's face disturbed Robert more then a little.

18 June 2072, 0425 EDT
[Simon as "Steve Townsend" deckhand - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty, Below Decks

Watching two more enemies go down, Simon gives an approving nod.

Nice.

The remaining guard's eyes bulge visibly before he decides to call it a day and throw down his gun.

Hmm, they don't pay you good enough to fight through that kind of assault, do they?

Surrender, what a nice idea. Sadly, we haven't got time for that.

Taking his time to line up a clear shot, Simon fires another burst, this time centered right on the man's chest, felling him right where he knelt.

Simon climbs out of his hole, quickly checks that none of their opponents fake being unconscious by softly - for a Troll, that is - kicking them in their sides and looks over to Zalermo.

"Let's head on. Whatever's going to happen will long be over before any of them wakes up."

Rusty peered down the corridor once more and then rose to head to John's side, still covering the entrance with her assault rifle. "Now cut the engines" she says tersely, translating quietly and pointing to the relevant menus and buttons with her off hand.

"Yes Ma'am, bringing down engines" Grabbing the throttle, John slowly pulled back to 0.

"Cap, I can only make out the basic controls. I suggest switching places."

Eying the armory camera, John noted two crew still in the armory. Radio Simon and Zalermo, "This is John, I have two hostiles in the armory. Stay alert and stand-by."

Rusty slings her rifle. "Affirmative, I have the conn" she says, taking over at the controls. "The bridge is secure, start securing our prisoners. Pat them down and then use the zipties and duct tape."

She slows the ship down to just a few knots to let the Fedallah catch up, then starts checking the automation levels, seeing how big of a prize crew will be needed to run this whale.

John was quite relieved that situation had stabilized so quickly. Checking the prisoners on the bridge, John dragged them to the other end of the bridge away from the con and the door. Finished, he readied and aimed his Praetor at the doorway.

"Ma'am, Iago got blindness from the flashbang. Let me know your orders."

18 June 2072, 0430 EDT
[Robert "Zalermo" Bennicimo as Jesus Gariba, Stuffer Shack Employee - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

The last of the security staff had been thoroughly secured, with the aid of Simon, and Zalermo was trying the hatches. It seemed that the bridge crew had managed to get everything sealed off after all. With the jammer's still up, Zalermo only had one method of communcation.

He leaned on the ship-wide intercom and radioed across the entire vessel over the wire, "Alright cap, the security team is down. We can start releasing door seals. My team and I will be politely securing everyone still outside of their rooms. OH, that reminds me, those of you still outside of your rooms listening in, please return to your quarters, you are under new management now. I can't get into the nitty of gritty of just 'whose' ship this is, and etc., but rest assured everything will be explained to you in good time. I just want to express my utmost sympathies at the crimes that were apparently being committed aboard this ship...you might have made some enemies when we get you back to a port of harbor, tsk tsk. But that does bring me to my next point, as long as you surrender with no hostilities, I assure you, you will MAKE it to that port of harbor. If you try to shoot at us or any other undue hostilities...well, you'll be getting off of this boat a mite sooner."

With that Zalermo layed off the intercom and door hatches started releasing. Reports said that nobody was in a position to threaten the cargo, so he and Simon re-routed their passage to go up towards the armory. They ran into a few people on the way, but they posed little resistance, especially after another of Zalermo's rousing speeches. "Alright, listen up," Zalermo said to the half a dozen crew members down on their knees, "We have passed out to each of you a nice zip tie, do us a kindness and put that on nice and tight. Now, my big troll buddy here will be headed down this hall right behind me, checking your bonds. If he is unsatisfied with the job you have performed, he will be tying you up himself. And that is no fun for anybody...well except for him...and me...its really funny watching people squirm when their plastic is on too tight...Anyways, like I said, tie yourselves up, we'll have people along in a bit to see you to your quarters."

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, but tensions ran a little high by the time Simon and Zalermo got to the Armory. Zalermo played it cautious and hit the patch-through com to the armory only, "Listen, I know you kids were just doing your jobs. And I respect that. First responders, thats real good, everyone is real proud of you. Of course, if you decide that you have enough guns and ammo to try to stage your own little rebellion...well, there won't be nobody left for your bosses to celebrate. What I'm saying is, you can either a) lay down your arms, lie about on your chest and let me and my troll buddy truss you up and take you back to your quarters. Or b) try to fight us, I'll crack this door open and roll a grenade in, and we'll see just how tough those walls are, saben? Good."

It took the better part of an hour before all of the crew was thoroughly accounted for, but all of the potential hostiles were locked up in their solitary quarters. All except for the apparent officers of the ship. They were each locked in less comfortable places, a solitary head, a solitary soy storage room, etc.. The goal was for them not to be able to speak to one another and not to have access to any nifty gadgets that they might have lying around. While everyone was getting organized, Zalermo took snapshots of each crew member, as well as the standard equipment that they were decked out with. With any luck, some of the more digital members of the crew could put some names to faces.

"Below crew to bridge crew, things are just about wrapped up here, cap. Everything's secure...I think its time to do what we've all been dreading...its time to check up on this...'cargo'."

Rusty says "I have things under control up here, get him somewhere dark and keep his eyes damp. He's our first casualty, so he has to buy the first round of drinks."



"Good work, below crew. All hands, assemble at the cargo hold entrance. We're going in." came Rusty's reply over the system. "This is going to be ugly..." she muses, setting the autopilot and heading down.

18 June 2072, 0435 EDT
[Simon as "Steve Townsend" deckhand - Hidden]
Caribbean Sea, Chantigo's Bounty

Pfft, you shoot a few of their crew and play some tricks with their computer systems and they just go ahead surrender. What a bunch of sissies.

After helping secure the ship, Simon heads off after grabbing two duffel bags they had found while "storing" their prisoners.

I'll meet you in the hold in a few.

After visiting what passes for mess hall and infirmary, Simon turns up for the meet, carrying the two full bags with an ease that doesn't fit the fact that they are stuffed full.

Noticing the questioning looks he gets, he offers as an explanation:
"Medkits, blankets, water and some light food. Who knows how they treated the poor sods."

John, Passive

"Oh good, I thought you were pillaging before I did!," John said with a wink. "Good thinking my friend" John finished before running off to the galley to bottles of water a wet towel for Iago.

Filling up the bottles, John texted Melissandre <Awesome matrix support! Thanks a bunch!>